The Tin Can Crucible

In 1994, while in the Peace Corps, Christopher Davenport travels to Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands to live with a group of subsistence farmers.  

There he settles into village life, begins learning the language and comes to love his inherited family.   

Then, one day, the villagers kidnap, torture, and ultimately kill a local woman accused of sorcery. 

Devastated, Christopher tries desperately to reconcile this unspeakable act with the welcoming and caring community he has come to love. But in trying to comprehend what he has witnessed through the lens of Western sensibilities, Christopher is unable to find the answers he is looking for.   

He is left with one universal question: How can we continue to love someone after they have done the unthinkable? 

In this moving true story, Christopher Davenport gives a considerate but courageously honest depiction of his transformative experience. He asks difficult questions about the role of philanthropy in the intersection of cultures, and the mutability of human virtue. He also looks internally to question the integrity of his own well-intended pilgrimage. The result is a sweeping account of grief, empathy, and the complex mechanisms of humanity.